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Yasukuni and the Aesthetics and Ideology of Kobayashi Yoshinori's Volume 11 | Issue 47 | Number 7 | Article ID 4031 | Nov 22, 2013 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Revisioning a Japanese Spiritual Recovery through Manga: Yasukuni and the Aesthetics and Ideology of Kobayashi Yoshinori’s “Gomanism” James Shields – Kato Etsuro, “Shin rinen manga no giho” (Techniques for a New Manga), 1942 Send to Kindle Yasukuni Shrine is the final stronghold in defence of the history, spirit, and culture of Japan. Summary – Kobayashi Yoshinori, Yasukuniron, 2005 This essay provides a critical analysis of the aesthetic ideology of “Gomanism” in the manga In 1992, just as Japan’s economic bubble was in of Kobayashi Yoshinori (b. 1953), particularly process of bursting, a series of manga began to Yasukuniron (On Yasukuni, 2005) and Tennoron appear in the weekly Japanese tabloidSPA! (On the Emperor, 2009), in order to flesh out under the title Gomanism sengen (Haughtiness the implications of the author’s “revisionist” or Insolence Manifesto).2 Authored by approach to Japanese religion, politics and Kobayashi Yoshinori (b. 1953), this series history blurred the line between manga and graphic novel to engage in forthright social and political commentary with an unabashedly nationalistic slant. Over the following two decades, Kobayashi and his works have become a publishing phenomenon. As of 2013, there are over thirty volumes of Gomanism (and Neo- Gomanism) manga, including several “special editions”—such as the best-sellingShin gomanizumu sengen special: Sensoron(Neo- Gomanism Manifesto Special: On War, 1998) and, more recently,Gomanizumu sengen special: Tennoron (Gomanism Manifesto Special: On the Emperor, 2009)—that have caused controversy and even international criticism for their revisionist portrayal of [Figure 1] modern Japanese history. At its most general, Gōmanism is a graphic and rhetorical style marked by withering sarcasm and blustering Manga is an art that should warn of or actively anger at what is perceived as Japanese attack all things in the world that are unjust, capitulation to the West and China on matters irrational, unnatural, or incongruous with the of foreign policy and the treatment of recent will of the nation. East Asian history. Its very success, however, 1 11 | 47 | 7 APJ | JF warrants closer treatment, particular with the perceived rise in nationalistic feeling associated with the new Liberal Democratic Party administration of Prime Minister Abe Shinzō. In 2005, Kobayashi published a graphic work [Figure 3] External others as “monsters” entitled Shin gomanizumu sengen special: (from left to right pp. 14, 121, 138) Yasukuniron (Neo-Gomanism Manifesto Special: On Yasukuni), which tackles the much- debated “problem” of Yasukuni Shrine, the Yasukuni and the Legacy of State Shinto militaristic religious complex that has become a lightning-rod for debates regarding Japanese The shrine that would become Yasukuni was historical memory—especially with regard to founded in 1869, a year following the Meiji the military expansionism in East Asia that led Restoration, as a place for “pacifying” the to the Asia-Pacific War (1931–1945).spirits of all those killed in wars fought for the “nation.” Originally known as Tokyo Shokonsha Frequently overlooked in discussions of (literally, Tokyo shrine for the invocation of the Yasukuni, however, are a number of complex dead), the name was changed to Yasukuni Jinja issues related to its religious doctrines—in in 1879 at the behest of the Meiji Emperor. As particular, the interpretation of Shinto Kobayashi notes, “Yasukuni” was chosen to presented at Yasukuni and the dominant imply “pacify the nation,” and in a (State) ideology of Japan’s military era, so-called Shinto context this was understood to mean “State Shinto” (kokka Shinto). This essay that the primary if not sole purpose of this examines the portrayal of the Yasukuni Issue shrine was to pacify the spirits of the war dead, within Yasukuniron, in order to: a) flesh out the which would help bring tranquility (and characteristics of Kobayashi’s Gomanism in protection) to the national body kokutai( ). 3 relation to the “theology” of State Shinto; b) Administered directly by the ministries of the examine the power and limits of manga as a Army and Navy, by the time of the Russo- representational form for teaching about the Japanese War (1904–1905), Yasukuni had complex nexus of religion, politics and history entered into popular consciousness as a symbol in modern Japan. Finally, I connect this work of Japanese imperial conquest and a focus for with the more recentTennoron , particularly the state-sponsored cult of the war dead. with regard to the status of the emperor as a Today, Yasukuni enshrines the “souls” of 2.5 “god” (kami). million people, including roughly 57,000 women, 21,000 Koreans, 28,000 Taiwanese, at least three Britons and, most controversially by far, 14 individuals indicted as “Class A” war criminals. 4 All of these men and women “offered their lives to the nation in the upheavals that brought forth the modern state” between 1853 and the present. As such, according to Kobayashi (and Yasukuni itself), those enshrined at Yasukuni are anything but [Figure 2] Depictions of war dead as “mere victims” (tan naru giseisha). They are “heroic spirits” (from left to right, pp. 41, rather “martyrs” (junnansha), “heroic spirits” 19, 45, 137) (eirei), and “(protective) gods of the nation” 2 11 | 47 | 7 APJ | JF (gokokushin). As we shall see, the intertwined glories of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. As I will tropes of martyrdom and victimhood play an show in this essay, while Kobayashi’s manga important role in the attempt to “restore” revisioningof Yasukuni also relies on this basic Yasukuni—and by extension, the true Japanese set of theological or ideological premises, spirit and identity. Yasukuniron indicates a subtle but significant shift in focus away from the ancient period, the In contrast to the coverage of the various Imperial House and the state and towards a political issues raised by Yasukuni, the more populist, modernist and possibly fascist specific religious or “theological” elements are rendering of “State Shinto.” I am using the often overlooked in popular coverage as well as term “revisioning” deliberately to refer to two within scholarly analysis. Yasukuni is, after all, things: (a) the technique of “revisionist” a “shrine,” and one that has played a central history—which Yasukuniron certainly engages role in the formulation and expression of a in; and (b) the more literal sense of “making particular religious ideology that is known over” or “recreating Yasukuni in a visual way” today as “State Shinto” (kokka Shinto). While via the evocative graphic techniques of manga. there remains much debate over the precise meaning of State Shinto, there is consensus that modern Shinto nationalism has roots in the so-called National Learning or Nativist School (kokugaku) of the mid- to late Edo period (1600–1867). While Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801) is the most significant early Figure in Shinto revivalism, it was his self- proclaimed successor, Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843), who transFigured nativist doctrine into a more “heroic” and populist form, focused on loyalty, patriotism and attunement to the spirits of the dead. The basic “theology” of State Shinto, at least in its later, wartime incarnation, might be summarized as follows: (a) all Japanese belong to a single national body kokutai( ), whose “head” is the emperor—not any specific person so much as the “unbroken” Yamato imperial line; (b) the Imperial House, by virtue of its lineal connection to the heavenlykami , as confirmed in the sacred classics, is sacrosanct [Figure 4] Slavish politicians, p. 9 and inviolable; (c) all Japanese, by virtue of being members of the national body, owe their complete allegiance and filial piety to the The Gomanist Truth about the Yasukuni emperor, a living kami; (d) by extension, all problem Japanese must obey the directives of the (imperial) state, even to the point of giving The title of the preface toYasukuniron— “The their lives for the kokutai. This is also the Ignorance behind the Yasukuni Problem” theological foundation of Yasukuni(“Muchi ni yoru Yasukuni mondai”) 5—is pure Shrine—albeit with a greater emphasis on the Gomanism. Here and throughout the manga 3 11 | 47 | 7 APJ | JF Kobayashi asserts that the entire “problem” of well-suited to manga format but also reflects a Yasukuni is based on a widespread (at times, it particular style of academic discourse in Japan, would seem, universal) ignorance of the various where linear structure tends to be considerably issues involved, an ignorance willfullyless important than in the West. As an opening perpetuated by national politicians and the gambit, Yasukuniron begins with a stark (“left-wing”) mass media. However, the Truth is example of popular misunderstanding out there (or rather, in here, i.e., the pages of regarding Yasukuni—in this case, ignorance the Yasukuniron), and possession of that Truth will Shinto doctrine and practice ofbunshi set us all free from our collective blindness. In (literally, “separation of worship,” but best short, do not expect to find here anytranslated as ‘the ritual separation and transfer postmodern prevarications about the nature of of an enshrined kami to another shrine’). 9 After truth and reality. It can and will be uncovered, noting, quite correctly, that politicians in the using “objective” methods of historicalNational Diet frequently call for the investigation (coupled, of course, with stark “separation” of the enshrined Class A war and frequently disturbing visuals). 6 criminals at Yasukuni, K argues that the ritual process of bunshi in Shinto is akin to the However, Kobayashi and his manga avatar transfer of a flame from one candle to another; (who I will refer to as K) are not only waging a in each case, nothing is lost of the original. On battle against ignorance, for such ignorance is the contrary, the original flame/kami is by this aided and abetted by cowardice and moral means effectively multiplied (thus quite the failure.
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